Sintra & Coimbra

Well, the travel portion of our blog is coming to an end. Right now I am writing this blog sitting in our apartment in Barcelona, and my orientation is tonight. In fact, I will probably not even be able to post this until after my orientation tomorrow, when my classes start.

Laura in some old Moorish ruins on the way into Sintra

So the blog is a bit behind. We almost got caught up in the last couple of places because we finally had internet, but now that we are in Barcelona we don’t have it again. Today we put in an order for internet at the house, but it will be a couple weeks before we get it.

But I don’t want to jump ahead too much. I am sure you are all dying to know what happened in our last two stops, Sintra and Santiago de Compostela. I know this post is titled Sintra & Coimbra, and that is because we stopped overnight in the city of Coimbra on our way from Lisbon to Santiago, but since we spent about zero time there, and actually didn’t even take a single picture (gasp!), I am just sticking it in this one and being done with it.

About Sintra: Sintra is a little town next to Lisbon that used to be where all the Lisbon royalty spent their free time. It has three big sights, two of them especially cool. The three sites are the National Palace, the Pena Palace, and a Moorish Castle. The first wasn’t so exciting, but the second two were really great.

The National Palace

Shot from Inside the National Palace


Laura took this stair shot of me looking hot


I liked it so I tried doing my own. I am not very original I guess. =^P

Another view from inside the National Palace

Here are a bunch of pictures, broken up by each site, with some extras thrown in the end. We had a great time in Sintra, it was the highlight of our stay in Lisbon.

This is the Pena Palace. I think it was the original Disneyland

This is some crazy sculpture in the Palace. Pretty nuts...

OK, That is the end of the Pena Palace shots. It was really incredible to see. Next comes the Moorish Castle...

Me looking fierce!

Laura looking cute as usual

The great wall of Sintra is what we called it

This place was incredible

View of the city from the Moorish castle

View of the Pena Palace from the Moorish Castle

As far as Coimbra goes, we can’t really say. We arrived after 9pm and left the next morning before 10. We had some excellent Indian food, and discussed a possible trip to India in the spring instead of a previously discussed Caribbean cruise. Besides that, we didn’t really do anything. We left early because Rick Steves told us that the next leg of our drive would take 8 and ½ hours, and we wanted to get a jump on it. That turned out to be totally bogus, since it only took about 3 ½ hours. I think Rick is confused.

Now I have to finish getting ready to go to my orientation/reception. I have the first day jitters, but I am sure it will be great! =^)

(end note: I tried to upload this last night, but it didn't work. The orientation went great, and so has my first day of school. There, now you know)

Goodbye for now!